About 15,000 undocumented immigrants living in Iowa will be eligible for deportation relief under President Barack Obama’s latest executive order on immigration, according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis. Iowa is home to an estimated 40,000 unauthorized immigrants (roughly 1.35 percent of the state’s population). Of those, Pew Center researchers estimate that about 5,000 people became eligible for deportation relief under Obama’s 2012 executive order regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Another 15,000 Iowans could receive deportation relief under the policy the president announced last week. A much larger number of Iowans stand to benefit from having the threat of deportation temporarily lifted from friends or relatives who are undocumented immigrants.

Click here to view a table showing how many people could be affected by the new immigration policy in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Jens Manuel Krogstad, a writer and editor at the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project, and Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project, collaborated on the new analysis.

Since last week, I’ve been wondering how unauthorized immigrants could find out whether the new executive order applies to them, without running the risk of deportation in case the answer is no. Madeline Cano, a community organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, told me that the application process for deportation relief will begin in May 2015. She said the Administrative Relief Resource Center is “the most reliable resource” on the subject. Using information from that website, Iowa CCI and other advocacy groups created documents in English and Spanish that cover the basics on Obama’s executive action. I’ve enclosed those documents after the jump.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.

UPDATE: At the end of this post I added excerpts from this Des Moines Register op-ed by Joe Henry, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa.  

UPDATE: On November 28 the Des Moines Register published a guest column by Joe Henry, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa. Excerpts:

President Obama is not the first U.S. president to use his executive authority to address immigration. President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, also used this authority.

In 1986, President Reagan granted legal status to about 3 million immigrants. President Bush later included spouses and children of those who had been legalized under the 1986 action.

Congress needs to be reminded of these family values and pass a plan that keeps families together while solving immigration challenges.

The exact process for receiving legal immigration status has not yet been detailed. We caution the immigrant community to be aware of fraudulent practices and those who may pose as attorneys and demand payment for immigration services.

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, an organization with seven councils across the state that represent almost 500 members, will work with our national organization and immigration attorneys to provide assistance to the immigrant population. LULAC is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization, with more than 1,000 councils across the United States and Puerto Rico and 200,000 members.